Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a regular series by Charles Hodgkins. It’s appeared regularly on SFist since May 2007, but will be going on indefinite hiatus due to a slew of upcoming travel and other projects.

View the map of all published Blocker episodes.

Blocker, No. 42: Battery St. in Northeast Waterfront

Blocker’s scope may confine us to the sidewalks 98 percent of the time, but on occasion we’ll find ourselves on certain blocks that demand a few steps outside the confines of our usual corridor. Nowhere is this more evident than along Battery between Greenwich and Filbert, a tree-lined street hemmed in by Levi’s Plaza on both sides. Granted, there’s not much to do up here unless you’re either an employee on break from one of the area offices, or merely someone always on the lookout for yet another place in the city to laze it up. But it’s a pleasant enough hideaway that’s a leafy antidote to the clatter and clang of nearby Fisherman’s Wharf or the Financial District. And you never know when you may be overrun by a just-passing-through posse of early teens in matching tees.